Bryan County house fire victims identified

The identities of the victims of a fatal house fire early this morning in Bryan County have been released by the office of the Georgia's Insurance and Fire Commissioner.

Glenn Allen, a spokesman with that agency, said that brothers Gavin Dale Newman, 3, and Randal Newman III, 4, died in the blaze. Another brother, Aden Wells, 6, and mother Crystal Beasley, 23, along with Randal Newman Jr., 33, survived the blaze and are being treated at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta.

According to Allen, the fire, which is being ruled as accidental, started as result of an electrical space heater being placed too close to combustible materials in the living room of the family's mobile home on Pine Needle Drive near Hendrix Park in north Bryan County.

Bryan County firefighters responded to the blaze which began around 4 a.m. with two trucks and crews, as well as the City of Pembroke with a truck and crew, and Effingham County with a tanker and crew.

Firefighters were forced to shuttle water to the scene due to no fire hydrants in the area.

Bryan County Fire Chief Otis Willis said the structure was completely involved when the first firefighters arrived on the scene.